Widgets, animated icons and covers: what's the difference?
Widgets are interactive embedded web pages; animated icons and covers are images that update themselves. Here's which to use and where it goes in Notion.
The WidgetStore library has three kinds of items, each used differently:
| Compare | Widgets | Animated icons | Animated covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A small interactive web page | An image that updates itself | A wide image that updates itself |
| Where it goes | In the page body (embed block) | Page icon, GitHub README | Page cover |
| How to add it | /embed and paste the link | Add a custom icon by link | Change cover → Link |
| Interactive | Yes (check in, start a timer…) | No | No |
| Free account limit | 2 | 3 | 3 |
Items marked Pro need a Pro membership, and Pro removes the limits on all three (see Pro benefits).
Widgets
Everything in the widget library — clocks, countdowns, weather, calendars, habit trackers, Pomodoro timers, progress bars, quotes, music cards, GitHub cards — is a regular web page. Once embedded, you can use it right inside Notion: check in on a habit heatmap or start a meditation timer.
- Widget text follows each viewer's browser language (English, Japanese, Simplified or Traditional Chinese).
- Most widgets switch between light and dark with the system setting.
- Widgets that keep records (Meditation Log, Habit Heatmap, Daily Fan Check-in) can save them to your own data table — see Data source: save widget entries to My Data.
Animated icons
An animated icon is an SVG image our server draws from your settings: today's date, days left until an event, the season, a text badge. Set it as your Notion page icon and it's always current — no manual updates.
You can also put it in a GitHub README (copy the Markdown format in the editor).
Animated covers
Animated covers are generated images too, in a wide cover format for Notion page covers: scenery, gradients, time progress bars, holiday countdowns, and more that change over time.
Which one should I use?
- To glance at information (a date, a countdown, progress) → an animated icon or cover. Lightest option, takes no space in the page.
- To do something on the page (check in, time, log) → a widget.
- To keep widgets on your browser home page instead of in Notion → add them to your Dashboard.